Everytime I install nay form of linux it deletes my boot loader, so ive given up trying. I can burn mint to a usb, is there a way to just use this and have a partition of my hard drive for linux stuff, and use the usb for the actuall operating system?
I would use Fedora instead; stay the hell away from Ubuntu and its variants. For Fedora, and Mint, you can mount the .iso to the flashdrive, and run it entirely off of the removable storage, with no local data changes. Simply boot into it from the UEFI or BIOS (depending on hardware), and you're fine. It will recognize all other storage you have in the system, and allow to access your files/HDDs/SSDs.
im currently using linux from my usb. I didnt realise it saved things id installed before (as when I just went to install 64 bit chrme, it was already here) Ill stick with mint for now, maybe move on to fedora, or the manjaro iso I have saved on my windows os (although for some reason manjaro wont open on boot)
Mint is fine, but I much prefer Fedora to Mint, having spent about a month on Mint, just recently coming to Fedora. Try a lot of different distros; Arch, Mint, Fuduntu, Ubuntu, Fedora, PCLinuxOS, etc., and see which one you like the most. Don't forget to try all different kinds of interfaces, as well, such as Cinnamon, Gnome 3, Gnome 2, KDE, etc.
Will do, Ive only tried ubuntu and mint 14 so far, Hated the look of ubuntu. I really want to try manjaro, but it wont recognise on bot strangely. Linux is much more resposive in terms of internet speed than windows 7, for some reason I get double the internet speed on linux (I just posted about this in the windows desction). Ill probably try arch soon, since ive heard its as fast as manjaro (which is apparently the fastest) And ill try mint 14 with the other layouts at some point, Then maybe ill attempt to install linux again, although I doubt it, I spent so long tryng to fix my bootloader whenever I tried installing linux.